And, despite concern over the state of Main Street, the bureau found that "the recent surge in retail sales in the CBD (central business district) has improved the competitive position of downtown retail."

"Over the past four years, retail sales in the CBD captured a greater share of countywide sales despite the addition of over a million square feet of new retail space in the suburbs," the report stated. In 2004, the CBD captured nearly 14 percent of countywide retail activity — the largest share since 1998."

Housing has also seen something of a boom since 2000, the BEBR report found. Ten new housing developments have been completed in that time, totaling 885 new units. Of those, 642 are rental units, and 243 are condominiums.

"This downtown housing boom has increased the number of units by 80 percent in 10 years," the report stated.

Not so for the office market, the BEBR found. No new office space has been developed downtown since 2002, and office vacancy rates (particularly for the Class C category) remain high. But, Wood said, there are signs that things are changing. Three new office buildings are expected to be under way this year: two at The Gateway, totaling 330,000 square feet, and a 350,000-square-foot tower by the Hamilton Partners on Main Street. The three projects have an estimated price tag of $150 million. And, Wood noted, vacancy rates for the more upscale Class A and Class B office space are lower, at 9.8 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively. The central business district currently has about 1.1 million square feet of vacant office space, according to the report, of which slightly more than 260,000 square feet is Class A space. Upwards of 530,000 square feet of Class C space is vacant.

Still, if all the previously announced projects are completed, the study said investment in the downtown area will exceed $1.5 billion — which surpasses even the $1.4 billion pre-Olympic buildup in the area.

"There is no period in the CBD's history of equivalent investment activity in such a concentrated time frame," Wood wrote in the report.

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com